Author: Steve Cannici
Grade Level: 11
Course:General Chemistry 1
Purpose of Unit
The purpose of the unit is to teach principles of the mole and stoichiometry to the students. Examples of some questions that should be able to be answered by the students at the end of the unit will include:
What makes different elements atoms different from each other? (aside from sub-atomic structure)
What types of labels are used when dealing with chemical measurements?
These questions will be addressed in the Apples to Oranges Demo lesson plan. An understanding of the mole is not possible if it is not understood that different elements have different masses. They must also need to know how to label any measurements that they make.
What is a mole?
What is the mole's importance?
What is an atomic mass?
How do you convert from moles to grams? (and other types of unit conversions including atoms and volume)
All of these questions are explored in the mole, mass, volume lesson where a mole is defined and specific uses of the mole are employed such as several types of sample calculations. In the roll-mole analogy, students use an analogy involving rolls of coins to learn about atomic mass and stoichiometrical calculations. Both of these lessons will help students along in acquiring the answers to these questions. An understanding of the mole and atomic masses are essential to many chemical equations and conversions.
Why is stoichiometry important when doing conversions?
How do you balance a chemical equation?
The students will use legos and model building kits to learn about balancing chemical equations and stoichiometry. To perform effective chemical reactions, an equation must be balanced so the necessary amount of materials is used.
The students will start off with a demo lesson that is constructed to give them an idea of elements and what, quantitatively, makes them different. They will also learn how to label their measurements. In the next lesson they will learn precisely what a mole is and how to do important molecular conversions. Next, in their inquiry lesson, they will perform an analogy activity that compares counting money to counting moles which extends their molecular conversion practice. Finally, the students will learn about balancing equations by constructing lego molecule's and then making a comparison by constructing chemical models.
This concept map shows how the different topics in the unit relate to each other
Lesson Sequence
At the beginning of each lesson, when the students walk in, there will be something to the effect of a handout or something written on the board. In other words, there will be someway of communicating to the class the agenda of the day, the topics they will be learning, and what they should be able to do at the day's end. Possibly even an agenda at the beginning of each week. Each individual lesson will include this daily "agenda". I would like to print out copies and hand them out at the beginning of each class, but I see that as a large waste of paper so I would either put it up on the board at the beginning of each class or hand one out for each week, making it a weekly agenda.
I will be using formative assessments the most often of course. By that I mean, asking questions, judging student responses, and observing students as they interact with each other. The easiest way to tell if the students will or will not be getting it is to ask them questions as the activity is going on. Using this tool, I can make judgments as to whether or not the class is getting the right idea or not conceptually. Using these judgments I can make adjustments on the fly and make sure that none of these misconceptions remain by the end of the period or by exam time for that matter. If I felt that there was one concept that I had to put extra emphasis on during class because they just weren't getting it, I would definitely follow it up with a question on the exam for several reasons. The first would be, "Did I explain this well enough so that the students now have an understanding of it?" The second reason would be, "Were the kids listening or how well did they retain what I told them?" Depending on how many kids got the question right and how they answered it would probably tell me which of these things were going on.
I must also have a summative assessment. At the end of the unit a classic true/false, multiple choice, and short answer exam would be given. I choose these three types of questions for several reasons. I like true/false because it won't stress the students out too much. I would like to consider this part of the exam the "low stress" part of the exam. The question won't necessarily be easy, but it shouldn't rack their brains to hard. The questions that will require the most thought will come in the short answer part of the exam. It is during the short answer section of the exam that the student can prove to me several things:
1) They studied
2) They understand the material
3) They can apply the learned ideas to new concepts
The short answer questions will be a mix of questions that they may be familiar with and questions that they may not have seen before. I would like to apply the principles of Bloom's taxonomy here. They need to show knowledge (e.g. reproduce definitions of vocab words), comprehension (e.g. written explanation of a concept or idea in their own words), and application (e.g. word problem in an unfamiliar or new situation involving known concepts). Multiple choice will be the last type of question on the exam. I like Multiple choice mainly because I can use it to cover a lot of the material from the chapter because they typically don't take long to answer. Bloom's taxonomy may also be exploited here, but my personal opinion is that multiple choice is more beneficial in the knowledge and comprehension range of Bloom's taxonomy as opposed to the application. Through the use of efficient distractors and well formed multiple choice questions, I can get a really good idea of which students have a complete understanding of the ideas and concepts in the chapter.
I feel as though all these types of assessment are crucial to the teacher. They each serve a purpose and one would not be quite as effective without the other. This is why I will perform formative and summative assessments throughout the entire school year, not just in this unit.
Rationale
The main idea of this unit is to give kids the tools necessary to be able to convert amongst atomic units and measurements. They have a nice base of prior knowledge to get them started (e.g. conservation of mass, basic mathematical skills, etc.). But, teaching about the mole, stoichiometry, atomic mass units, and other micro scale ideas are not easy concepts for most kids, or people in general, to grasp. This unit is based on several ideas in teaching to help scaffold the childrens' learning.
At the beginning of each lesson plan, I like to start out by attempting to assess the students' prior knowledge. To do this, I will typically begin asking the students some questions or trying to "pull" information from them. The questions will of course have relevance to the topics of the day and should illustrate some key ideas that the student may want or need to reference during the class discussion. This is very important in my mind's eye for two reasons. The first is, of course, that I obtain an assessment of the students' prior knowledge. Now I will know which parts of the lesson I may need to spend less (or more, but hopefully not) time on. Secondly, It activates the students' prior knowledge. Ideally, the student can make a mental list in his/her head composed of what we've been talking about and make the connection that the stuff we are talking about in class is somehow connected to the material they listed in their head from the beginning of class.
Through the use of demonstrations I can get kids seeing the big picture. I myself was always a visual learner. The way that I am able to do chemistry is by picturing what is going on in my head. I have always been a firm believer that the easiest way to understand microscale phenomena is by giving macroscale representations and analogies. By giving analogies and representations that the students may be able to relate to, they can assimilate this new concept with a previous idea in their head. Thus, the student does not have such a hard time picking up on a new, and very possibly complex, concept.
Another very important idea that I try to display and put to good use in this unit is inquiry. When I first started working with inquiry I did not have a very true idea of all the different components that combine to mold this idea called inquiry. As I started building my inquiry lesson, my idea of inquiry broadened and I realized that inquiry was not just questions and answers, but also involved everything from making observations to taking measurements. None the less, I knew that inquiry was still a vital key that played an important role in unlocking the door that lead from children just thinking and doing to children thinking and questioning, actually behaving and thinking like scientists should. What I would most love for the students to do, which I believe can be acquired through inquiry practices, is to take an idea and obtain a complete understanding of it. Then, begin applying it to new, and possibly unfamiliar, situations. It is at that point where I believe students can prove to me that they are not just memorizing, but actually learning material. I try to illustrate this point in my Inquiry Lesson Plan, The Roll-Mole analogy.
Something which we never discussed in class, but I feel is an idea that can not and should not be understated enough, is what I will talk about in these final sentences. This idea is, A LESSON OR UNIT CAN NEVER BE FINISHED!!!! There can never be a truly completed or perfect lesson plan. As a teacher, I am under the impression that teachers love to share ideas with each other and cooperate in a never ending manner. This can be used to your advantage by including things, editing things, revising things and ideas in your lesson plans. All of my lesson plans will be subjected to periodic reviews because the longer I teach, the more ideas I know I will get to improve on any particular lesson plan. I see teachers as an exclusive community that share a common knowledge that many other people just can't acquire. Teaching is not done by a teacher, I feel that teaching is done by the teachers.
Title: The Mole and Stoichiometry
Author: Steve Cannici
Grade Level: 11
Course: General Chemistry 1
Purpose of Unit
The purpose of the unit is to teach principles of the mole and stoichiometry to the students. Examples of some questions that should be able to be answered by the students at the end of the unit will include:What makes different elements atoms different from each other? (aside from sub-atomic structure)
What types of labels are used when dealing with chemical measurements?
These questions will be addressed in the Apples to Oranges Demo lesson plan. An understanding of the mole is not possible if it is not understood that different elements have different masses. They must also need to know how to label any measurements that they make.
What is a mole?
What is the mole's importance?
What is an atomic mass?
How do you convert from moles to grams? (and other types of unit conversions including atoms and volume)
All of these questions are explored in the mole, mass, volume lesson where a mole is defined and specific uses of the mole are employed such as several types of sample calculations. In the roll-mole analogy, students use an analogy involving rolls of coins to learn about atomic mass and stoichiometrical calculations. Both of these lessons will help students along in acquiring the answers to these questions. An understanding of the mole and atomic masses are essential to many chemical equations and conversions.
Why is stoichiometry important when doing conversions?
How do you balance a chemical equation?
The students will use legos and model building kits to learn about balancing chemical equations and stoichiometry. To perform effective chemical reactions, an equation must be balanced so the necessary amount of materials is used.
The students will start off with a demo lesson that is constructed to give them an idea of elements and what, quantitatively, makes them different. They will also learn how to label their measurements. In the next lesson they will learn precisely what a mole is and how to do important molecular conversions. Next, in their inquiry lesson, they will perform an analogy activity that compares counting money to counting moles which extends their molecular conversion practice. Finally, the students will learn about balancing equations by constructing lego molecule's and then making a comparison by constructing chemical models.
Learning Performances and Standards
Steve Cannici - Learning Goal AnalysisGraphic Organizer
This concept map shows how the different topics in the unit relate to each otherLesson Sequence
At the beginning of each lesson, when the students walk in, there will be something to the effect of a handout or something written on the board. In other words, there will be someway of communicating to the class the agenda of the day, the topics they will be learning, and what they should be able to do at the day's end. Possibly even an agenda at the beginning of each week. Each individual lesson will include this daily "agenda". I would like to print out copies and hand them out at the beginning of each class, but I see that as a large waste of paper so I would either put it up on the board at the beginning of each class or hand one out for each week, making it a weekly agenda.Steve Cannici - Demo Lesson
Steve Cannici - Mole,Mass,Volume Lesson
Steve Cannici - Inquiry Lesson
Steve Cannici - Balancing Chemical Equations <--abbreviated
Assessment Plan
I will be using formative assessments the most often of course. By that I mean, asking questions, judging student responses, and observing students as they interact with each other. The easiest way to tell if the students will or will not be getting it is to ask them questions as the activity is going on. Using this tool, I can make judgments as to whether or not the class is getting the right idea or not conceptually. Using these judgments I can make adjustments on the fly and make sure that none of these misconceptions remain by the end of the period or by exam time for that matter. If I felt that there was one concept that I had to put extra emphasis on during class because they just weren't getting it, I would definitely follow it up with a question on the exam for several reasons. The first would be, "Did I explain this well enough so that the students now have an understanding of it?" The second reason would be, "Were the kids listening or how well did they retain what I told them?" Depending on how many kids got the question right and how they answered it would probably tell me which of these things were going on.I must also have a summative assessment. At the end of the unit a classic true/false, multiple choice, and short answer exam would be given. I choose these three types of questions for several reasons. I like true/false because it won't stress the students out too much. I would like to consider this part of the exam the "low stress" part of the exam. The question won't necessarily be easy, but it shouldn't rack their brains to hard. The questions that will require the most thought will come in the short answer part of the exam. It is during the short answer section of the exam that the student can prove to me several things:
1) They studied
2) They understand the material
3) They can apply the learned ideas to new concepts
The short answer questions will be a mix of questions that they may be familiar with and questions that they may not have seen before. I would like to apply the principles of Bloom's taxonomy here. They need to show knowledge (e.g. reproduce definitions of vocab words), comprehension (e.g. written explanation of a concept or idea in their own words), and application (e.g. word problem in an unfamiliar or new situation involving known concepts). Multiple choice will be the last type of question on the exam. I like Multiple choice mainly because I can use it to cover a lot of the material from the chapter because they typically don't take long to answer. Bloom's taxonomy may also be exploited here, but my personal opinion is that multiple choice is more beneficial in the knowledge and comprehension range of Bloom's taxonomy as opposed to the application. Through the use of efficient distractors and well formed multiple choice questions, I can get a really good idea of which students have a complete understanding of the ideas and concepts in the chapter.
I feel as though all these types of assessment are crucial to the teacher. They each serve a purpose and one would not be quite as effective without the other. This is why I will perform formative and summative assessments throughout the entire school year, not just in this unit.
Rationale
The main idea of this unit is to give kids the tools necessary to be able to convert amongst atomic units and measurements. They have a nice base of prior knowledge to get them started (e.g. conservation of mass, basic mathematical skills, etc.). But, teaching about the mole, stoichiometry, atomic mass units, and other micro scale ideas are not easy concepts for most kids, or people in general, to grasp. This unit is based on several ideas in teaching to help scaffold the childrens' learning.At the beginning of each lesson plan, I like to start out by attempting to assess the students' prior knowledge. To do this, I will typically begin asking the students some questions or trying to "pull" information from them. The questions will of course have relevance to the topics of the day and should illustrate some key ideas that the student may want or need to reference during the class discussion. This is very important in my mind's eye for two reasons. The first is, of course, that I obtain an assessment of the students' prior knowledge. Now I will know which parts of the lesson I may need to spend less (or more, but hopefully not) time on. Secondly, It activates the students' prior knowledge. Ideally, the student can make a mental list in his/her head composed of what we've been talking about and make the connection that the stuff we are talking about in class is somehow connected to the material they listed in their head from the beginning of class.
Through the use of demonstrations I can get kids seeing the big picture. I myself was always a visual learner. The way that I am able to do chemistry is by picturing what is going on in my head. I have always been a firm believer that the easiest way to understand microscale phenomena is by giving macroscale representations and analogies. By giving analogies and representations that the students may be able to relate to, they can assimilate this new concept with a previous idea in their head. Thus, the student does not have such a hard time picking up on a new, and very possibly complex, concept.
Another very important idea that I try to display and put to good use in this unit is inquiry. When I first started working with inquiry I did not have a very true idea of all the different components that combine to mold this idea called inquiry. As I started building my inquiry lesson, my idea of inquiry broadened and I realized that inquiry was not just questions and answers, but also involved everything from making observations to taking measurements. None the less, I knew that inquiry was still a vital key that played an important role in unlocking the door that lead from children just thinking and doing to children thinking and questioning, actually behaving and thinking like scientists should. What I would most love for the students to do, which I believe can be acquired through inquiry practices, is to take an idea and obtain a complete understanding of it. Then, begin applying it to new, and possibly unfamiliar, situations. It is at that point where I believe students can prove to me that they are not just memorizing, but actually learning material. I try to illustrate this point in my Inquiry Lesson Plan, The Roll-Mole analogy.
Something which we never discussed in class, but I feel is an idea that can not and should not be understated enough, is what I will talk about in these final sentences. This idea is, A LESSON OR UNIT CAN NEVER BE FINISHED!!!! There can never be a truly completed or perfect lesson plan. As a teacher, I am under the impression that teachers love to share ideas with each other and cooperate in a never ending manner. This can be used to your advantage by including things, editing things, revising things and ideas in your lesson plans. All of my lesson plans will be subjected to periodic reviews because the longer I teach, the more ideas I know I will get to improve on any particular lesson plan. I see teachers as an exclusive community that share a common knowledge that many other people just can't acquire. Teaching is not done by a teacher, I feel that teaching is done by the teachers.
Unit Plan Evaluation